Eric Gordon Injury: Updates on Hornets Star's Knee

The New Orleans Hornets were expecting big things in 2012 after drafting Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers and signing Eric Gordon to a four-year, $58 million contract extension in the offseason.

Unfortunately, that excitement will have to be put on hold. Gordon is out indefinitely with a right knee injury, the same one that limited him to just nine games last season and the same one that he had arthroscopic surgery on back in February.

UPDATE: Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7:35 p.m. ET by Ian Hanford

Sports Illustrated's Sam Amick reported that the timetable for Gordon's return remains the same, but he also provided some insight from the Hornets organization:

The club, along with the Hornets medical staff and Eric have arranged for a more personalized and intensive rehab regimen that will take place in Los Angeles beginning this week and allow him to work with specialists and provide a more focused attention on rehabbing his injured right knee. The prognosis is still in the 4-6 week range for his return to the court.

We will know more details after this "personalized and intensive rehab regimen" is complete, but it still sounds iffy for New Orleans' star guard. It's hard to see this team succeeding without him in the long term.

Stay tuned.

---End of Update---

UPDATE: Monday, Nov. 5 at 2:25 p.m. ET by Matt Fitzgerald

Hornets.com beat writer Jim Eichenhofer has the latest from New Orleans head coach Monty Williams about Gordon's status:

Monty on Eric Gordon, who is focused on making his quad stronger: "He'll be under strict strengthening and rehabbing for the next few weeks"

It looks like Gordon is hard at work to make an impact this season. In light of this and the last update which put him about four to six weeks from returning, Hornets fans should be optimistic that Gordon can return to the fold sooner rather than later.

The team could definitely use Gordon's scoring ability, as they are averaging just under 91 points per game through the first three contests without him.

Contrary to this ESPN report from Chris Broussard and Marc Stein, microfracture surgery doesn't appear to be in Gordon's immediate future. Whether that's a good strategy is up for a debate, but it seems Gordon is targeting Christmas time as a potential date to make his 2012-13 season debut.

Gordon has only played nine games in parts of two seasons in New Orleans, a troubling trend for the team that gave him a max contract in the summer of 2011.

---End of Update---

UPDATE: Thursday, Nov. 1 at 2:10 p.m. ET by Matt Fitzgerald

Hornets reporter Joe Gerrity provides plenty of captivating information regarding Gordon's injury, including some muddy elaboration on the injury from the guard himself:

Gordon said its very painful. He said he doesnt know "at all" when or if he'll be be back this season.

Perhaps Gerrity's impending video will shed a little more light on the situation. But what is certain is that Gordon has some serious knee issues, an injury that has plagued him since the beginning of last year. The fact that he may miss the entire season this year certainly doesn't bode well for his promising future.

Gordon admitted he experienced a setback at some point between the U.S. Olympic Basketball Team trials and the time he reported for training camp on Oct. 1, which has prevented him from participating in any of the Hornets' preseason schedule.

"I'd say sorta," Gordon said. "From talking to the doctors, from when I last told you guys in September until now, I have a little bit of a setback as far as this injury. Nothing structural, but it has been a little bit of soreness and swelling to where I'm only listening to the doctors and they can see and tell that it's been a little damage.

Gordon was instructed by a member of the Hornets' media relations staff not to speak with reporters and was escorted to the locker room after shoot around by the team's security chief.

"He's going to be out," Williams said. "The way I understand it, he's going to be out indefinitely until we get some more clarity on what's going on so I don't have to answer these questions every day and give you guys the update. We'll just go from there."

Gordon missed the entire preseason nursing the injury, but he had been practicing of late, and there was hope he would be able to play in Wednesday's season opener against the San Antonio Spurs. Following practice on Tuesday, Gordon said "there are no guarantees" he could play but that he was hopeful, according to Jimmy Smith of NOLA.com:

I'm just trying to do the best I can every day. It has been feeling better throughout the process of a few weeks. It's just really tough right now to really say right now that I'm guaranteed to play.

Clearly, something went wrong in his recovery.

This will be a huge disappointment for Hornets fans, who are obviously curious to see how the young pairing of Gordon and Davis will work together on the court. If nothing else, Hornets fans will now get a much longer look at Rivers in the backcourt.

Gordon is an excellent player when healthy—in the 2010-11 season for the Los Angeles Clippers, he averaged 22.3 points and 4.4 assists per game—but he hasn't been able to steer clear of injuries. The huge amount of money New Orleans invested in Gordon to keep him from signing with the Phoenix Suns was a pretty big risk.

Still, we don't know the severity of this injury and Gordon could be back in action in a few weeks. Or, he could lose a much larger chunk of the season. Until more details emerge, we'll be playing the guessing game on Gordon's status.

And New Orleans fans will continue to grow more and more antsy about the future of their team's top player.